Eerie Stories from the Middle of Nowhere

Month: November 2016

You really can find the strangest things online. I have a habit of digging around on the Internet for weird, unsolved and creepy stories. That’s the main reason I stared broadcasting the Nowhere Dispatch to all of you lovely people in the first place.

Earlier this year, I stumbled across a post on Imgur about mysterious and unsolved cases. Buried in the list of weird stories and strange occurrences, I found out about the then-unsolved case of Lori Erica Ruff.

This woman was an enigma. She had married a man and had a child with him despite her bizarre behavior and her reluctance to reveal her secretive past. Eventually, her behavior placed a strain on their marriage and her husband filed for a divorce.

The Texas Driver’s license that Lori obtained when she moved to Texas and changed her name in the 90s.

This set into motion a weird series of events, which ultimately culminated in Lori’s tragic suicide, right here in my own town of Longview. However, her death was just the start of her unreal saga.

After her passing, her husband’s family began digging into her past. They were shocked to find that Lori Erica Ruff was not her real name. In fact, her name previous to the marriage had been Becky Sue Turner. This was equally bizarre because that was the name of a two-year-old girl who had died in a house fire in 1971. They found strange items in Lori’s house, including an obituary for Becky Sue Turner and a scrap of paper covered in inscrutable scribblings.

The strange note found in Lori’s lockbox after her suicide, containing the phrases “402 months”, “North Hollywood police” and “Ben Perkins”.

From there, things ran into a dead end. The family eventually shared their story with a retired investigator who pursed the case of identity theft for another three years. He sifted through the details of her life and the jumbled collection of clues she left behind. He, too, ran into a dead end, despite finding out a few details about Lori/Becky’s mysterious past.

It wasn’t until three years later, with the help of a forensic genealogist, that the truth would finally come out.

When I first came upon Lori’s case in early 2016, her true identity was still unknown. When I found the case again in September of this year, her identity had been revealed only a few days earlier.

It was then that I knew that I had to share this story with you, nowhere wanderers. This case caught the attention of the world and it revolved around events right here where I live, smack dab in the middle of nowhere.

This is what it’s all about, ladies and germs. Tune in to this weird tale in the latest installment of the Dispach, dear listeners. I have always been fascinated by bizarre and inexplicable stories and this one is, perhaps, the most infamous that I have released on the podcast.

Also: exciting news! The response to the Nowhere Dispatch has been incredible. We’re still a small operation but we’re growing fast. In the coming weeks, stay tuned for updates about a Patreon that I’ll be creating for the pocast so that you can help me bring you the stories that captivate us all and, in return, you’ll get some cool shit!